honestly..buy a cheap set of steelies and winter tires if you're doing much driving in the snow. this will do 2 things...one-> you'll actually get traction in the snow. and two-> you'll keep the salt and grime off your nice alloys.

i have had great luck with discounttire.

even "all" season performance tires are a joke (i speak from many years of driving on them)

I'm about to purchase a new GTI and the model I've chosen has the 18in wheels fitted. However when driving another model with the std 17in wheels I felt the ride quality is better with the 17ins. I'm considering having the dealer fit 17ins as long term i'll take ride quality over the extra performance.Any similar experineces?

I live in Washington, DC. Since purchasing my GTI in March 2006, Iv'e had to get THREE new 18-inch tires... the horrible condition of roads is DC is destroying them. At $320/tire, I'm wishing I'd gotten 17-inchers.

Unless performance is absolutely critical, I would go with 17" wheels and tires. In my area it gets cold enough and with some snow that all season tires are a must. I plan to make sure my new GTI is fitted with 17" all season tires. If the dealer won't make that happen, I'll take my business elsewhere. Fortunately, I have about 25 dealer within 50 miles of my home.

So, I got my GTi in October (live in suburban Boston) I got the 17 inch all season. We've had a lot of snow this winter. I went from a Durango so was worried but the all season have held up really well. I was contemplating winter tires.

It's true the salt on your alloys is a separate issue but I've been really impressed with how this car has handled the snow this year.

I'm purchasing a 2008 VW GLI. The car comes with 17" all-season 225/45R17 inch tires. There is an option to put 225/40R18 wheels and tires on the car for about $11 more per month on a 36-month lease. I'm not concerned about the $11 a month, but rather the possibility of significantly more tires bubbling, blowing up or wheels getting destroyed. I live in NY and travel mostly in the 'burbs, making the occasional (once a month) trip into NYC. There are still some potholes around to be sure, but nothing like the Bronx! If I went with the 18" it's solely because I like how they look. I'm sure the ride of the 18's is only negligibly "sportier," and I've been told that the snow traction should be about the same as the 17's given that the tires are the same manufacturer and are identical in tread type. Would I be a fool to buy the 18's? Am I destined to go through a significantly greater number of tires and possibly scuffed wheels or is the difference only going to be marginal. Again, I really like how the 18" wheels look, but I'm not going to do it if it's truly stupid in the wallet. :confuse:

I'm in the same situation. Looking at an 09 GTI, i think the Huffs look great, but i'm considering settling for the Denvers if it means less headaches. Those Huffs are sweet though.. Is there really much difference in 17" vs 18"?

:mad: :mad: :mad: So after 8200 miles my '08 GTI has had enough of it's summer tires. Took it in because the tire noise was getting progressively louder and the tech says they have very bad "cupping". Of course not covered under warranty. Anyone have better luck with their non-summer tires?

No luck my tires at all! So I am now about to purchase my 5th new tire on my GTI in 7 months. I love this car but how can I drive it and feel safe when I get a flat every month? I have the 18" Dunlop SP Sport 01's. The sidewalls bubble and split. Is it the tires? Or my car? I do live in MI which means I'm dodging potholes every second. I'm desperate for guidence!!

If/when I buy a new GTI (I'm hoping to hold out for a MKVI), I'll be selling the factory 18" wheels and tires on Craig's List almost as soon as I take delivery and replace them with a 17" set. Why? Better handling, better ride, and a MUCH greater ability to absorb a hit from a pot-hole.

18" wheels means low-profile tires, and if you're in any kind of rough road area, you're going to pay dearly for "looks" as low-pros just aren't meant to handle potholes.

I can't think of many places where I'd want to run low-pros, no matter how nice I think they look, just because of that.

A few years ago my brother was shopping for a new car, and the dealer showed him a car that someone had ordered but decided not to take. It had large wheels and low-pros and the dealer offered to not charge my brother the cost of the option in order to move the car. The car looked great with the wheels and tires, so he decided to take the deal. He lives in north NJ. Within two weeks he had gone thru two tires and was going to have to replace a wheel along with the second tire because of rough road conditions. He changed out the wheels and tires to something a little more normal in aspect ratio and decidedly "less cool". But the roads stopped eating his tires.

Purchased at 2007 GTI Fahrenheit in late August. 18 tires have become increasingly noisey even under the most basic driving conditions. Also the ride is very rough. Any suggestions to remedy? Should I purchase 17 inch wheels and tires?

Take a look at the tread in the inside of the tire. Is it fanning or feathering? This is what happened to the 17" ers on my '08 GTI. They made a terrrible noise, had to be replaced at 8k miles, no help from dealer or Bridgestone. :mad:

I gave up trying to loosen the lug bolts on my GTI today. The 10-inch VW wrench supplied is way too small even when I put my foot on it. Feels like they're torqued to 250 ft lbs. So I took it to the tire shop that rotated the wheels and they laughed when I told them it's a VW, said this is a chronic problem with all the German cars. They assure me they use a torque wrench to set at manufacturer specs, but the German bolts seize up shortly after they're put on, and require either an air gun or breaker bar. I find this infuriating. An innocent up in the mountains in winter who gets a flat is in for a rude shock. Apparently the Germans prefer not to address this, consistent with the exotic logic that provokes them to do so many silly things with otherwise good cars. If you've experienced this, please reply or post.

A problem with all German cars? Hmmm, that's funny, I've had seven cars from Germany (and worked on a whole lot more) over the years and never once have I had your problem, not even on my VWs. Go figure.

Well, I've owned four different brands of German cars in the 70s and 80s and never had this problem with them either. But I have to believe that the big tire store I've patronized for 20 years has more recent knowledge than I, and has no reason to invent this. If there's some easy way to prevent the bolts from siezing and my having to haul a breaker bar I'd appreciate knowing it.

The reason why your lug bolts were in so hard is because some lummox used an impact wrench to mount the wheels, contrary to the directives of pretty much every maker in the world, the Germans included. FWIW, the lug bolts of ALL of my German cars were supposed to be torqued to no more than 95 lb-ft of toque, well within the range to allow easy removal with a hand wrench.

While I appreciate your taking time to respond, I think I did say that my long-time tire dealer assured me that the impact wrenches are set to 50 ft lbs and they use torque wrenches from there to bring them to spec. Now, that may have been happy talk, in which case when they do the job tomorrow morning I'll be watching and will use my factory lug wrench before they put the caps on, to see whether I can loosen the lugs or else find an answer to the problem.

1) Impact wrenches, by the nature of the beast, "hammer" whatever they are torquing in place, and when using them on a wheel, especially an alloy wheel, they are guaranteed to screw things up royally. Lug bolts need to be smoothly hand torqued in place, period, full stop, the end. Said another way, any tire shop that uses an impact wrench on tires is a tire shop that will not get my business, ever.

2) If they're only using fifty pounds of torque on lug bolts, then the cars they service are in serious jeopardy of finding themselves running down the road on three or fewer wheels.

I'm thinking that you might want to call around and find a shop that hand torques the wheels they mount.

The day after we got our 07 GTI I removed all lugnuts one-by-one and re-installed them with a slight amount of grease on the threads. I did use a half inch breaker bar but after the installation I checked if they would come out with the tool in the trunk. I do this on every car we owned and never had a problem. Tire stores are notorious for over tightening lug nuts. Whenever the cars get new tires or get a service I like to repeat this procedure.